In a rather fortuitous moment, a local university professor accidentally sent this long-lost creation of mine instead of his creation for Logicsmith Exhibition 1: Polyominous. Hooray for fortuitousness!

Argh, I feel utterly exhausted from test-solving and repeatedly finding and fixing flaws in this one. I repeatedly swore, thinking all my hard work was about to be for naught. x.x I think I managed to create a rather sexy puzzle in the end, though.

I do not know the origin of this type of puzzle. It's just been around for a long time. Nikoli calls it Nansuke.

1. Place a single digit in each white cell of the grid.2. A horizontal or vertical group of two or more consecutive white cells, bounded on both sides by black cells or the edge of the grid, is called an entry. Every entry, reading from left to right or from top to bottom, must be one of the numbers listed below the grid. Every number listed below the grid must appear as exactly one entry.

During a five-night period from Monday through Friday, Eliza Pseudonym had a series of unusual dreams. Every night, she had a dream set in a different unusual place (in one dream, Eliza found herself on trial in a courtroom). In each dream, a different one of her closest friends unexpectedly appeared and said something seemingly nonsensical. Eliza noted that she had eaten something different each night before going to bed; needless to say, she has sworn not to eat any of those foodstuffs so late at night ever again! From the clues below, determine the setting of the dream Eliza had each night, which of her friends made an appearance, what each friend said, and what food item Eliza had eaten each night.

1. Eliza had a dream about her friend Carla precisely two nights before or two nights after her dream in which she was a soldier on a war-torn battlefield.2. The dream in which a friend said, "I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!" occurred either the night before or the night after Eliza ate beef jerky.3. Eliza ate some delicious chocolate chip cookies on the night her dream featured a friend saying, "I was raised by a cup of coffee!"4. Barbra made an appearance in a dream precisely three nights before Eliza ate pickles.5. The dream with Delilah in it occurred some time prior to the dream in which Eliza's friend said, "There is no nineteenth story, so there is no Miss Zarves."6. Eliza dreamed that she was the host of a popular talk show either the night before or the night after her dream where a friend said, "Paleobotanical backwards licorice."7. Anna was in Eliza's dream precisely one night after pretzels were eaten before going to bed.8. A friend said, "Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx," in the dream where Eliza was a scientist performing studies at a laboratory.9. Eliza ate an orange precisely two nights after she dreamed about dancing to funky music at a disco.10. Fiona appeared in Eliza's dream on Tuesday night.

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Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

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What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.